Democrats should be more comfortable discussing economic growth

STEVE BANNON is right. This week, in a New York Times Magazine piece otherwise dedicated to the President’s dance with Congress, he offered this: 

I think the Democrats are fundamentally afflicted with the inability to discuss and have an adult conversation about economics and jobs, because they’re too consumed by identity politics. And then the Republicans, it’s all this theoretical Cato Institute, Austrian economics, limited government—which just doesn’t have any depth to it. They’re not living in the real world.

Lose the bit about identity politics, and you have a clear summation of American macroeconomics. Republicans are lost in theory, unburdened by empirical evidence. Democrats don’t seem to have much of a theory at all. And as Republicans dust themselves off and turn to rewriting America’s tax code, Democrats could use a working theory of economic growth. Judging from last year’s campaign, they aren’t ready to commit to one. Should they develop an interest, however, there are several to hand.

Grossly simplified, there are...Continue reading